Egyptian arrested at Cairo airport on suspicion of Al-Qaeda link

This image provided by the FBI shows an undated image of Saif al-Adel also known as Muhamad Ibrahim Makkawi, Seif Al Adel, Ibrahim Al-Madani. He was arrested Wednesday Feb. 29, 2012 at Cairo Airport (Photo: AP)


Egyptian national Mohamed Ibrahim Makkawi was arrested at Cairo International Airport on Wednesday afternoon upon his arrival from the UAE on suspicions that he was in fact Seif Al-Adel, a former leader of international terror outfit "Al-Qaeda."

Al-Adel, a former Egyptian Special Forces officer now in his 50s, allegedly succeeded the late Osama bin Laden as Al-Qaeda chief on a temporary basis before Egyptian physician Ayman El-Zawahri reportedly assumed the post.

Makkawi, for his part, who says he has previously been mistaken for Al-Adel, has stressed his readiness to be questioned by Egyptian authorities. He does not deny, however, that he had once been a member of Al-Qaeda.

An airport source told Ahram Online that authorities had been informed in advance of Makkawi's planned visit to Egypt.

He was apprehended by security forces shortly after his arrival to the country.

Before coming to Egypt, the cash-strapped Makkawi says he visited Egypt's embassy in the UAE, where he reportedly requested a ticket to Cairo, which, he says, he was unable to afford.

According to the airport source, Makkawi first arrived in the UAE from Pakistan. He entered the Gulf country on a temporary passport, which had been issued in Islamabad on 28 February.

"He told Egyptian embassy officials in the UAE that he had defected from Al-Qaeda a long time ago, strenuously denying claims that he was bin Laden’s successor," said the airport source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"Makkawi said he wanted to return to Egypt after last year's revolution, saying he had originally left the country due to Mubarak-era injustice," the source added. "He says he welcomes interrogations and investigations so as to clear his name and prove he isn't Al-Adel."

“He explained his link to the terrorist organisation by saying he was married to the daughter of an Al-Qaeda warlord," the source concluded.

Meanwhile, French news agency AFP reported that Egyptian security officials had stated definitively that Makkawi was not, in fact, an Al-Qaeda operative.

"He is wanted for involvement with the Al-Jihad group. He is not Seif Al-Adel," a source at the National Security apparatus was quoted as saying.

The same source went on to explain that Makkawi had left for Afghanistan to join the war against the Soviet Union in the 1980s, later settling down in neighbouring Pakistan.

In an interview in May of last year with pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat, Makkawi said he had been mistakenly identified as the senior militant. He went on to tell the newspaper that he had disagreed with Al-Qaeda's leadership and therefore sought political asylum in Pakistan.

"Following the tragic events of 9/11, I was surprised to find my name and history under the image of another Egyptian, under the false name of 'Seif Al-Adel,' as part of the FBI's list of the 22 most wanted terrorists – even though I have no connection to Al-Qaeda or its operations," Makkawi said at the time.

In the interview, he added that he was wanted in Egypt for involvement with the Al-Jihad group, a onetime militant outfit that eventually renounced violence in the late 1990s.

After the killing of bin Laden in a US commando raid in Pakistan in May of last year, reports emerged that Seif Al-Adel – later identified as Makkawi – had become the jihadist network's acting chief.

Analysts now say, however, that Makkawi had been mistaken for another militant of a similar background.

The United States, meanwhile, accuses Al-Adel of setting up Al-Qaeda training camps in Sudan and Afghanistan in the 1980s. Washington also claims that he was involved in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Only Sharia law can fully destroy Mubarak regime, says Al-Qaeda leader

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman El-Zawahiri has released a video on the internet in which he says only the imposition of Islamic Sharia law can completely rid Egypt of the Mubarak regime.

El-Zawahiri, who became Al-Qaeda chief after Osama Bin Laden was assassinated last year, said Egypt must stop being at the US's beck and call and begin a new chapter by annulling the Camp David agreement with Israel.

In a 24 minute video titled, "Why did we revolt against him then?" El-Zawahiri said the recent Arab revolts had an Islamic flavour and were directed against rulers who worked as US agents.

"Egypt is not a free trade zone, a US agent, a broker for Israel or a tourism nightclub," El-Zawahiri said. "Egypt is the citadel of Islam and a fort for the Arab world. It should not be transformed into another version of Saudi Arabia which is merely a Crusader agent that applies Islamic law only on the weak."

He also congratulated Muslims for the decline of US power, which he said was revealed by President Barack Obama's reduction of the US military budget.

When Obama revealed the military budget for 2013, he said that it has been reduced for the first time since 1998, El-Zawahiri said.

"The Afghan Mujahideen inflicted the disasters on the US which forced it to shrink its military budget," El-Zawahiri he said.

”Military arrogance" only damages the US, he concluded.

israeli president to protect Christian sites

JERUSALEM (AP) -- israel's President Shimon Peres has promised the Roman Catholic Church that the country will step up efforts to combat the vandalism of Christian holy sites by suspected Jewish extremists.

Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who is the Vatican's custodian of religious sites in the Holy Land, asked the president earlier this week to intervene following the spraying of graffiti on two Christian churches in Jerusalem in February.

In a Tuesday letter to Pizzaballa, Peres wrote that he has received assurances from Israeli law enforcement pledging to redouble their efforts to find the culprits and protect the sites.

Peres wrote: "Please accept my deep shock at these events, and my hope for continuing a life of tolerance and mutual respect in Jerusalem and all over the country."

2 American troops killed in Afghan shooting

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Two American soldiers were killed Thursday in a shooting by an Afghan soldier and a literacy teacher at a joint base in southern Afghanistan, officials said, the latest in a series of deaths as anti-Americanism rises following the burning of Qurans by U.S. soldiers.

Both were killed on the same day that the top NATO commander allowed a small number of foreign advisers to return to work at Afghan ministries after more than a week of being locked down in secure locations because of the killing of two other Americans.

Thursday's killings raised to six the number of Americans killed in less than two weeks amid heightened tensions over the Feb, 20 burning of Qurans and other Islamic texts that had been dumped in a garbage pit at Bagram Air Field near Kabul. More than 30 Afghans also were killed in six days of violent riots that broke out after the incident.

President Barack Obama and other U.S. officials apologized and said the burning was an accident, but that has failed to quell the anger.

Two U.S. officials in Washington confirmed the two slain NATO service members were Americans. One said details of the killings Thursday in southern Afghanistan were still unclear but officials believe there were three attackers, two of whom were subsequently killed. He said the third may be in custody. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.

The shootings on Thursday were the latest in a series of attacks by Afghan security forces - or militants disguised in their uniforms - against Americans and other members of the international alliance. Last month the Pentagon released data showing that 75 percent of the more than 45 insider attacks since 2007 occurred in the last two years.

They are likely to raise further questions about the training of Afghan security forces by coalition troops as foreign forces prepare to withdraw by 2014.

Hundreds of advisers were pulled out of ministries and other government locations after an Afghan gunman shot and killed two U.S. military advisers on Feb. 25 inside their office at the Interior Ministry. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the ministry shootings, saying they were conducted in retaliation for last week's Quran burnings, but no one has been arrested in the case.

An Afghan soldier also killed two U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan on Feb. 23 during a protest over the Quran burnings.

U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings said Thursday that Marine Gen. John Allen, the top commander in Afghanistan, approved the return of selected personnel. He could not elaborate which ministries were involved, but an Afghan official said some had returned to a department setting up a government-run security force that will guard international development projects.

A NATO official said less than a dozen advisers had returned. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Foreign advisers are key to helping improve governance and prepare Afghan security forces to take on more responsibility. The U.S. is already reducing its own troop presence by 30,000 at the end of the summer. Many of the remaining soldiers will switch from fighting to training and mentoring Afghan forces.

In Thursday's shooting, NATO said a man in an Afghan army uniform and another in civilian clothes opened fired on coalition and Afghan soldiers, killing two foreign troops. It did not provide further details, and Afghan and U.S. officials gave conflicting accounts about the sequence of events.

A district chief in southern Kandahar's Zhari district said the shootings took place on a NATO base when an Afghan civilian who taught a literacy course for Afghan soldiers and lived on the base started shooting at NATO troops. Niaz Mohammad Sarhadi said the shootings occurred at 3 a.m. and that NATO troops returned fire and killed the man and an Afghan soldier.

Mohammad Mohssan, an Afghan Army spokesman in Kandahar city, confirmed the incident occurred at a base in Zhari and involved two Afghans, one of whom was a soldier, who opened fire on coalition troops from a sentry tower. He said both were killed.

In Washington, one of the two officials said two men were though involved- an Afghan Army officer and a civilian who taught a literacy course on the base for Afghan soldiers. The pair opened fire on an Afghan sentry tower at the forward operating base, then climbed it and began shooting at NATO troops on the ground, the official said.

The head of the U.N. in Afghanistan said Thursday that the military personnel who had disposed of the Qurans should be punished.

Obama said Wednesday that his apology to Afghan President Hamid Karzai after U.S. forces mistakenly burned Muslim Qurans had "calmed things down" but told ABC News that "we're not out of the woods yet." He said he apologized to assuage Afghan anger and protect U.S. forces.

Muslim protests over the burnings have ebbed this week. But the killings of the two U.S. military officers at the Interior Ministry came after Obama's apology last week.

Western officials have said a joint investigation by NATO and Afghan officials into the burnings was nearly complete, and preliminary findings could be released within days.

The report, a military official said, might also include recommendations for disciplinary action, but those are expected to be included - if necessary - in a more detailed report that will be ready sometime next month. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still in progress.

Jan Kubic, who runs the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, told reporters that after "the profound apology there must be the second step" after the completion of the investigation. He said that step was "appropriate disciplinary action."

"Because only after such a disciplinary action the international military forces would be able to say yes, we are sincere," Kubic said.

He said it was up to the military to figure out how to solve the problem created by the Quran burnings.

"It's not us, the U.N., who desecrated the Holy Quran, it is the military and it's up to the military to decide what kind of steps they will take," Kubic said.

Syrian opposition forms military council

BEIRUT (AP) -- Syria's main opposition group formed a military council Thursday to organize and unify all armed resistance to President Bashar Assad's regime as the conflict veered ever closer to civil war.

The Paris-based leadership of the Syrian National Council said its plan was coordinated with the most potent armed opposition force - the Free Syrian Army - made up mainly of army defectors.

"The revolution started peacefully and kept up its peaceful nature for months, but the reality today is different and the SNC must shoulder its responsibilities in the face of this new reality," SNC president Burhan Ghalioun told reporters in Paris, saying any weapons flowing into the country should go through the council.

Still he tried to play down the risks of all-out warfare.

"We want to control the use of weapons so that there won't be a civil war," he said. "Our aim is to help avoid civil war."

The SNC has called for arming rebels in the past, but this was the first time it sought to organize the fighters under one umbrella. The plan coincides with a ferocious government offensive on the opposition stronghold of Homs in central Syria that has been going on for nearly a month.

International pressure on the regime has been growing more intense by the day. The U.N.'s top human rights body voted Thursday to condemn Syria for its "widespread and systematic violations" against civilians, and the U.K. and Switzerland closed their embassies in Damascus over worsening security. The U.S. closed its embassy in February.

But the U.S. has not advocated arming the rebels, in part out of fear it would create an even more bloody and prolonged conflict because of Syria's complex web of allegiances in the region that extend to Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

On Wednesday, the Syrian regime showed a new determination to crush its opponents, vowing to "cleanse" the rebel-held district of Baba Amr in Homs from "gunmen," as activists reported troops massing outside.

Syrian activists said government forces have cut off communications to Bab Amr, jamming satellite phone signals as they mass for an apparent ground assault. The neighborhood has been under siege for about four weeks and hundreds have died in shelling.

Authorities had previously blocked land and mobile phone lines, but activists were able to communicate with the outside world with satellite phones.

The activist Revolutionary Council of Homs said it could no longer reach anyone inside Baba Amr. All satellite signals were jammed, it said.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said there was "fierce fighting" at the entrances to Baba Amr and troops have been unable to enter so far.

Ghalioun said regime forces are facing strong resistance from the rebels in Baba Amr.

"Our position is very strong. We control the terrain there," he said. "The situation in Baba Amr is that the FSA ... has relocated in some areas to other areas. In some points, they still maintain a stronghold and the regime is unable to take over. Their strategy is to take one neighborhood one street at a time, but the resistance there is still strong."

The Syrian conflict began as mostly peaceful protests, which drew an iron-fisted military crackdown. But the revolt has turned increasingly militarized. There are near daily clashes between armed military defectors and government forces and the rebels have managed to capture and hold small pieces of territory, notably in and around Homs and along the northern border with Turkey.

The opposition's main problem over the past year has been its inability to coalesce behind a single leader or ideology beyond toppling the regime. Western powers trying to help the anti-government forces oust Assad have repeatedly stressed the importance of the fragmented opposition pulling together. The SNC announcement seemed to respond to those calls.

"The Military Bureau will track the armed opposition groups, organize and unify their ranks under one central command, defining their defense missions while placing them under the political supervision of the SNC, and coordinating their activities in accordance with the overall strategy of the revolution," the SNC said in a statement.

Members of the U.N. Human Rights Council on Thursday voted 37 in favor and three against a resolution proposed by Turkey that calls on Syria to immediately stop all attacks on civilians and grant unhindered access to aid groups.

Three members of the 47-nation body abstained and four didn't vote.

Russia, China and Cuba objected to the resolution.

The Geneva-based council's vote carries no legal weight but diplomats consider it a strong moral signal that may encourage a similar resolution in the powerful U.N. Security Council.

The U.N. estimated that more than 7,500 people have been killed since the anti-Assad struggle started in March 2011, when protesters inspired by successful Arab Spring uprisings against dictators in Tunisia and Egypt took to the streets in Syria. As Assad's forces used deadly force to stop the unrest, protests spread and some Syrians took up arms against the regime.

Activists put the total death toll at more than 8,000, most of them civilians.

In Kuwait, the parliament Thursday passed a non-binding resolution calling on the government to help arm the Syrian opposition and to break diplomatic ties with Assad's regime. A day earlier, parliament passed a non-binding resolution urging the government to recognize the SNC as the country's sole representatives.

There was no immediate reaction from the rulers in the oil-rich Gulf state. Some lawmakers also have proposed severing diplomatic ties with Assad's regime, but the issue has not come up for full debate.

American teacher dies in north Iraq shooting

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq (AP) -- An American gym teacher was shot and killed Thursday in an apparent murder-suicide after an argument with a student in a private school in northern Iraq, officials said.

The quarrel broke out Thursday morning at the Medya School in Sulaimaniyah between the gym teacher and the student, identified as 18-year old Biyar Sarwar, said city police spokesman Sarkawit Mohammed. During the argument, Mohammed said, Sarwar shot the teacher with a gun he had hidden in his clothes.

Mohammed said Sarwar then shot himself, and died of the wounds later at a nearby hospital. Sulaimaniyah health director Retawit Hama Rashid confirmed Sarwar's death.

Eyewitnesses described a scene of chaos in the classroom, with several students fainting out of fear.

Sulaimaniyah mayor Zana Hama Saleh confirmed the police account but declined to speculate on Sarwar's motive.

The Associated Press is withholding the gym teacher's name pending notification of next of kin.

Sulaimaniyah is located in Iraq's comparatively peaceful Kurdish region, 160 miles (260 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad.

The attack came at the Media School, a private, Christian, English-based academy that covers elementary through secondary grade levels. It runs schools in the three provinces that make up Iraq's northern Kurdish region with a total enrollment of about 2,000 students.

According to the school's website, American staff often help teach one or two courses each semester. An estimated 95 percent of the students come from Kurdish Muslim families, and the rest are described as either Orthodox or evangelical Christians or from other backgrounds.

Many students are the children of local government officials and community leaders.

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has not yet confirmed the death.

"We have heard reports regarding the shooting of a teacher in Sulaimaniyah and are working through our consulate in Irbil and Iraqi authorities to ascertain the details of the incident," the Embassy said in a statement. "At this time, we are waiting for identification to be completed and for the family to be notified."

Plot to Abduct Syrian Rebel Army Leaders Thwarted in Turkey

Turkey’s intelligence service has thwarted a plot to abduct commanders of Syria’s rebel Free Syrian Army from its tent camp in Turkey, local media said on Thursday.

The Sabah newspaper said police arrested a female Syrian intelligence officer and her Syrian and Turkish assistants on February 25. Notes revealing her plans to abduct Syrian rebel commanders were found during a search.

She reportedly was plotting to abduct defected Syrian colonel Riad al-Assad, the current head of the Free Syria Army, his main rival, defected Syrian general Mustafa Sheikh and other top officers in the rebel forces.

The officer and her group are to face trial on espionage charges.

The Free Syrian Army, formed last fall mainly of deserters from the Syrian armed forces, is an armed wing of the opposition Syrian National Council. The Council unites parties, groups, political and public figures mainly from outside Syria. Its main demands are the immediate resignation of President Bashar al-Assad and new parliamentary elections.

Both Western and Arab nations increased their pressure on Assad’s regime, calling for an immediate end to bloodshed in Syria, which according to Syrian rights groups has claimed more than 7,000 lives since the uprising against the current authorities began 11 months ago.